Composite sandwich structures—as a structural system made of skins which enclose a core—are used for many purposes, typically providing weight efficient solutions. Core materials can be made of hollow structures—cells—contributing to composite structure weight reduction.
Composite sandwich weight efficiency has led the aircraft industry to use this structural solution for stiffened panels across different aircraft components.
Current state of the art sandwich core solutions, do not present an ad-hoc layered trigger mechanism for impact energy absorption maximization. Stepwise graded as well as through-the-thickness reinforced core solutions may increase the overall energy absorption of the sandwich structures, although do not systematically prevent both impactor fragmentation and progressive failure at core level in the case of high speed impacts.